That would be a big jump up from its most recent ranking. From November 2012 to November 2013, Alabama ranked 49th in total overall job growth. It grew jobs at a rate of just 0.15 percent. Only Alaska, where total employment shrank, had a smaller figure.

And if Alabama meets its projection, it will have seen an even bigger jump in job growth. Moody's expects the state to grow jobs at a rate of about 1.5 percent -- which would be 10 times faster than the most recently reported annual rate of growth for jobs in the state. And adding 29,000 jobs in 2014 would be more than a tenfold leap over the most recent annual addition of 2,800 jobs.

Moody's estimates that Illinois will suffer through the slowest job growth of any state in 2014. It estimates that jobs in that state will grow by about 1 percent. That's about the pace at which Illinois added jobs in the most recent 12 months, but that was enough to be ranked 35th among states.